Frenchman Patrice Beaumelle has been appointed as the new Ivory Coast coach.

It is a return to Ivory Coast for Beaumelle, as he was assistant to his compatriot Herve Renard when the Elephants won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

He has worked extensively with Renard and was his assistant when Zambia won the title three years earlier, in 2012.

Before moving to join Renard with the Elephants he was head coach of Chipolopolo for nine months.

He continued to work with Renard after Ivory Coast at French club Lille and the Moroccan national team.

When Renard left to become the coach of Saudi Arabia Beaumelle stayed in Morocco and took charge of their under-23 team.

His first task will be to prepare the Elephants for back-to-back 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Madagascar at the end of March.

Ivory Coast suffered a shock 2-1 loss away in Ethiopia in their last Group K game after a narrow 1-0 win over Niger in their opening qualifier.

The Elephants reached the quarter-finals of last year’s Nations Cup in Egypt, where they lost on penalties to eventual winners Algeria.